I’m a few weeks behind, and Mid90s isn’t exactly the hot topic it once was, but I still feel compelled to revisit it this week. These little rants are going to be a recurring column here at Skateism, and while I’m sure it’ll devolve quickly into complaining about how all the kids are vaping and listening to Lil Pump, for now I’m still trying to call bullshit when bullshit needs to be called.
Words: Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
To that end, Mid90s, Jonah Hill’s homage to 90’s skate culture, is some straight up bullshit. Specifically, the fact that they were able to get away with a thinly veiled celebration of homophobia in the name of being “period correct,” is a huge, steaming pile of the stuff.
And get away they did, with not one but nine glowing write-ups in Vice verticals, but a plethora of other positive coverage. Skate media joined in just as eagerly. Given the pithy explanation that the many, many homophobic slurs in the film were just their way of accurately reproducing skate culture in the 90s, and the convenient involvement of a gay producer who told them it would be “so offensive” not to include those slurs, we’re supposed to…actually, what the fuck are we supposed to do with this? Applaud Hill for his bravery? Nod sagely about how fucked up things used to be? How far we’ve come?
I’m sorry, motherfucker, but things are still bad. Shit’s getting better, but toxic masculinity is still the rule of the day in skateboarding in 2018. I know Jonah Hill knows this. He’s absolutely still clinging to the culture, and while I have no problem with him being a fan, I have a big problem with him attempting to pass this shit off as if it’s not still prevalent in just about every single pack of skate kids in America. If you go to the South Pasadena skatepark, a not-so-secret favorite of LA pros, you’re just as likely to hear a 14-year-old squawk that their friend who snaked them is a “faggoty fag fag” as you are to see Austyn Gillette doing graceful nollie full cabs on the tall bank. I’ve personally been witness to both.
Indeed, homophobia in skateboarding is a fire that smolders still, and Hill’s film is a particularly fat log to throw on it. Its entire intent is to stoke nostalgia for a purer, more perfect era of skateboarding, specifically that of Mouse. I’m not knocking that, because I wouldn’t have picked up on Hill’s subtle homages if I hadn’t fostered my own teenage obsession with Mouse, but it’s worth looking at what we’re being nostalgic for.
Thing is, you can’t really evoke a golden era of skateboarding without painting everything in it gold, including the homophobia. And that’s exactly what Hill has done. In his eagerness to get invited to Rick and Mike’s houses for brunch, he’s glorified all of the worst elements of hyper-masculine skate culture with nary a moment to spare for those who had to live with their consequences.
And people definitely lived with those consequences. Brian Anderson, who would later ride for the same company that made Mouse, stayed in the closet for nearly his entire career. I don’t want to ruin our upcoming print issue for you, in which I had the privilege of interviewing Forrest Kirby about his recent decision to come out, but Anderson and Kirby knew about one another’s sexuality a full 12 years ago, while nearly none of F.O.R.E.’s friends did. If that isn’t an indication of how hostile things were, even for two of the 90s most legendary pros, I don’t know what is.
Oh wait, I do: All of the ways in which things like telling a younger skater that saying thank you is “gay” manifested in actual acts of violence against gay people. Of course skateboarding is not the only ostensibly countercultural subculture to be warped by the patriarchy—see punk rock, contemporary socialism, and the current wave of anime rappers—but that doesn’t excuse our specific transgressions.
Without some consideration of that history, some attempt to address the fallout from skateboarding’s shameful past, the film is just a dog whistle for the days when drinking 40s, fucking bitches, and calling people fags was de rigueur. Call me crazy, but if we’re not going to take an honest look at that era, I’d rather not revisit it at all.
